[freedumb2003]

I think he is more thinking of guys like Tim Robbins who uses a small snif-snif British accent even though he was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley (east of L.A.) and has lived the rest of his life on So. Cal.

John Wayne, Bob Mitchum and others mentioned had their own unique accent and style — certainly NOT homogenized by any measure.

[Clemenza]

Marion Michael Morrison may have been raised in Glendale, but he maintained his Iowa twang via his parents (and the fact that so many folks in Southern CA at the time were from Iowa, particularly in Glendale, Pasadena, etc.). I may be talking out of my culo here, but Gene Hackman has they classic masculine midwestern accent in most of his roles (he's a bit more subdued in real life), hailing from downstate Illinois.